Words cannot describe the pain that Israel is feeling right now. After the atrocities that they have endured, Israelis should demand no less than a resounding victory over the Palestinian terrorists who orchestrated what many have already called Israel's 9/11. Israelis should not settle for some temporary victory as in previous Gaza conflicts. Simply wounding Hamas and the other Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza just won't cut it. At the least, this war should end with the complete destruction of the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip.
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Ever since Hamas took over Gaza in 2007, Israelis have been living a nightmare. Endless salvos of rocket fire and the constant threat of terrorist infiltration into Israeli territory – a threat that has now become reality, because, for 16 years, Israel relied on a policy of containing Hamas and the other Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza rather than eradicating them. Successive Israeli governments believed that if they pounded Hamas hard enough, the terrorist group would be deterred from attacking Israel. But time and time again, this assumption has been proven wrong – now, more than ever.
Not all the blame, however, can be hoisted upon Israel's politicians. Indeed, it is very possible that some of Israel's leaders wanted to go into the Gaza Strip and annihilate the Hamas regime a long time ago, but because of pressure from allies, particularly the US and especially under the appeasement-loving Obama and Biden administrations, Israel was limited in its ability to act. Thus, all Israel has done over the last 16 years is respond to Hamas' attacks with limited force.
Israel's leaders also wrongly believed that fences and other barriers would prevent Palestinian terrorists in Gaza from infiltrating Israeli territory. But as we have seen, these measures were as ineffective as the Maginot Line was in preventing the Nazis from invading and eventually conquering France in World War II. Hiding behind fences is never the answer. Israel must remove the threats to it, not simply contain them.
There was a time when Israel's policy was to eradicate threats to its security. During the War of Independence and the Six-Day War, Israel didn't build fences hoping that it wouldn't get attacked. Instead, the IDF went to where the threats were and destroyed them. This is what happened, for example, on the Golan Heights, which the Syrians once used as a high ground to shoot and kill Israelis. During the Six-Day War, Israel captured the territory and drove the Syrians out so that it could no longer be used as a base from which to murder Israeli citizens.
Israel must do in the Gaza Strip what it did in the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War – go into the territory and wipe out the terrorists so that Gaza can never be used as a base to attack Israelis ever again. Now of course, it is very easy for me, as an Israeli living in Canada, sitting comfortably in my chair writing this, to advocate such a dangerous move. I'm not among the soldiers who would be risking their lives destroying the Hamas regime in Gaza. Indeed, going into Gaza and removing the Hamas regime therein will inevitably result in many casualties. In fact, I would say that a battle to recapture Gaza may resemble Stalingrad. We will probably lose hundreds of soldiers, who are sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, fathers, and mothers to many Israelis.
But consider what is happening because we did not topple Hamas in Gaza a long time ago. Hundreds of Israelis murdered – men, women, children, civilians, and soldiers. Dozens taken hostage, paraded in the streets of Gaza to cheering crowds thirsty for more Jewish blood. And the casualties just keep mounting.
Consider also that there will probably never be a better time to destroy the terrorist regime in Gaza than now, because no one can realistically expect Israel to show the same kind of restraint it has in previous Gaza conflicts, not even the Biden administration. Israel now has the leeway it needs to do what it needs to do – eradicate the terrorist threat from the Gaza Strip once and for all.
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